Moon Stuttering in the Sky
by sugarweregoindownswingin
Summary: Hatake Kakashi is beginning to grow suspicious of Haruno Sakura.


Kakashi starts to get suspicious after Wave.

Because the thing is, in Wave, Zabuza had all but completely ignored Sakura. And sure, he was fighting Kakashi himself at the time, but no nuke-nin worth his salt would ignore the weak link in a three-man genin squad, especially not when said weak link was an obvious soft spot for the genin attacking an ally and the jounin that you were fighting yourself.

But Zabuza hadn't even looked at Sakura. Hadn't even acknowledged her, really, had talked about them as a three-man squad, called them a washed-up jounin and a couple pathetic genin.

Sakura had all but disappeared from Zabuza's world.

And the more Kakashi thinks about Wave, the weirder it gets.

The family they had been staying with had never once set out a plate for Sakura. At first, it had seemed rational- of course Sakura would eat earlier, she's an early riser; of course Sakura didn't have lunch with them, she was guiding the bridge-builder; of course Sakura didn't eat dinner, she's on a constant diet.

But looking back, Kakashi can't remember the family giving Sakura any food. Can't even remember them acknowledging her. They were always addressed as a group, no specific continuance for Sakura, no specific exclusion, but she was never specifically called out like Naruto and Sasuke often were.

Add to that the fact that she got tree climbing first, without even leaving any impact marks on the trunk- an untrained, civilian-born genin, getting up a hundred feet the first time she manipulated her chakra.

And after Wave, Kakashi notices more things. Sakura's chakra pools are tiny. Miniscule. Not just compared to Naruto, who had stupid high chakra levels, or Sasuke, who managed to get Senju-sized chakra pools with Uchiha-size emotional issues in some cruel twist of the genetic lottery. No, Sakura just had miniscule chakra pools. Even compared to Gai, or Gai's non-Hyuuga students, or any of the other clans who have tricks from genetics instead of chakra, Sakura has nearly zero chakra. When Kakashi sensed everyone's chakra, Naruto's was obviously stupid big- almost enough to drown in- and Sasuke's was a little smaller, maybe enough to splash around in, and Sakura's was barely a blip. A raindrop, versus a swimming pool and an ocean. She had no chakra Nada. Zero, zip, and zilch, all in one cute little pink-haired package.

And yet, she had never looked sick or feverish that Kakashi had seen her, not even a little woozy. And she used her chakra a lot, almost carelessly- padding her steps with chakra so she never tripped, using it just to ease her way through physical conditioning, plus dodging Sasuke's ninjutsu and practicing her genjutsu and her kai and a million other little chakra expenditures throughout the day.

She used too much chakra for how much chakra she supposedly had, but she never seemed to mind.

Her chakra is so small that Kakashi really does have to work to sense it. Even Iruka and Gai and Anko came easily, and Anko is hiding her signature from Kakashi half the time. Everyone is easier to sense than Sakura, and Sakura isn't supposed to be the type of girl who knows how to or wants to hide her chakra from people. She's supposed to be an average, if annoying, little girl.

But there's a lot about her that doesn't make any sense. She's suspicious in the kind of way that makes Kakashi consider going nuke-nin, because he knows more about what goes on in Konoha than he tends to let on.

Another thing is, Kakashi's never met her parents.

Never even seen her parents.

According to the conversations that he's managed to piece together with her, her parents are civilian, minor clan in Konoha but pretty major players in Suna (he can see it, she's got the forehead) who spend a lot of their time traveling and trading, signing and proposing and negotiating contracts. Sakura is, apparently, self-sufficient since age eight, living on her own whenever her parents are out of town, ever since her grandmother died and stopped watching her.

Kakashi goes to ask Iruka about his students one day, after academy classes are over, and scaring the bejeesus out of the chuunin is just an extra bonus. A hilarious bonus.

Iruka tells him that he only ever met Sasuke's parents, Fugaku and Mikoto. He talks a lot about Fugaku and Mikoto, and Kakashi almost entirely tunes him out. Obviously, Iruka's never met Naruto's guardian, as if the orphanage matron would ever go to meet with Naruto's schoolteacher.

But what surprises Kakashi is that Iruka's never met Sakura's parents. Not even on Parent Day, or on the first day of school, or during the graduation celebration.

Iruka barely remembers Sakura herself. Doesn't have any of her old schoolwork, but confirms her as being an excellent student. Quiet in class.

But when Iruka pulls out the manila folder that he's kept for Sakura, like the one he keeps for every student, it's empty.

Not even Sakura's registration form. Not even her graduation papers, her genin license copy, her registration photo, anything.

Iruka seems as surprised as Kakashi feels.

It's a suspicious few weeks after that. Kakashi stares at Sakura intensely as she trains, watches her use her chakra without care, watches when Naruto and Sasuke both look away from her while they're waiting for him and her benign stare towards Naruto turns acidic, watches her get sent flying in sparring and barely react, not even leaving any landing marks.

He tries to follow her home, more than once, but she loses his every time in a convenient evening fog.

She loses him. A twelve-year-old, five weeks worth of geninhood, civilian kunoichi loses him, with a twenty-year minimum chuunin career and fifteen-year minimum jounin career and ten years as the ANBU captain, and it would seem like utter nonsense if it weren't for Kakashi already being suspicious of her.

Things get weirder during the chuunin exams.

First off, before the exams even start, his genin run into some genin from Suna. And Kakashi does see when they spot the Gaara kid, who everyone who is actually allowed to know things knows is the jinchuuriki for Suna.

And the kid locks on to her. He stares at her while he's addressing Sasuke and Naruto, and Sakura hides behind Sasuke like the cute little girl she's supposed to be.

But the kid's siblings don't even notice her. They glance at Naruto, stare at Sasuke, and don't even seem to recognize Sakura as a person.

The kid fixates on Sakura the same way that Naruto kind of does, without professing his love, and seems like he's trying to jump into her eyes.

In the forest, apparently, Orochimaru finds them.

And according to Sakura's way-too-put-together report, the Snake Sannin had been entirely focused on Sasuke.

According to Naruto's much more reasonably chaotic report, Orochimaru hadn't even looked at Sakura. Had called Naruto the little monster, had told Sasuke that he would be back to check on his progress.

But hadn't even thought about Sakura. Hadn't said her name, had barely noticed her, had only referred to Naruto and Sasuke.

And then, during Sakura's fight, the preliminaries- with the new Yamanaka kid, the girl who was still only about a tenth as bad as Inoichi had been, despite her bravado- when the girl goes against her, plays her kekkei genkai only when she's convinced that she won't win against Sakura- the kekkei genkai doesn't hit Sakura.

It should, by all rights, because the Yamanaka girl was directly parallel to Sakura, and they were staring each other down in a straight line.

But the kekkei genkai doesn't go anywhere. The Yamanaka girl pushes her hands out, focused with a circle, and her mind stays in her body.

And Sakura, before the Yamanaka can even blink in confusion, is running forward with her fist up.

The hesitation is miniscule. Not even Gai notices, nor Hayate, but Kakashi sees it. Sees the stutter in Sakura's steps, the slightest slowing, just enough for the Yamanaka to raise her own fist and hit Sakura back.

Both girls fall, instead of just the blonde, which is what should have happened.

Kakashi pretends to be reading his porn.

The thing about being perpetually late for things is that it gives him plenty of time to find a variety of interesting people to chat with. So during the month before the actual chuunin exams, before he even starts on teaching Sasuke chidori, he ends up wandering around the Akimichi district, where the Yamanaka compound is, and wanders right into Inoichi's flower shop.

The Yamanaka girl is helping at the counter, and she calls out a cheery greeting without looking up from her bouquet. She doesn't recognize him until he returns her greeting and asks to ask about Sakura.

The Yamanaka girl doesn't know a whole lot, though. Sakura had been a quiet little girl, soft-spoken, almost never even noticed by Inoichi- whose job was to notice people.

Sakura had apparently just showed up in the park one day, crying behind the flower bushes, no previous history of playing there or being there. She just was, all of a sudden, and was crying so sadly that there was no way that Ino couldn't help her.

But Ino's parents hadn't even noticed all the times that Ino had brought Sakura over to her house, according to the girl. Hadn't noticed their daughter's new friend, how kind their daughter suddenly was, desperately overprotective within a night.

They had always gone to Ino's house, never Sakura's. Even Chouji's house, occasionally. But Ino had never met Sakura's parents, seen the Haruno compound, met Sakura's parents. Had only known her in class, at the park, at her own house.

Kakashi would be even more suspicious, if not for the fact that there's no reason that anybody would want to spy on the Yamanaka- their kekkei genkai is far too dangerous for anyone to attempt subterfuge on them, and more than enough to keep most infiltrators at bay.

There's really no explanation for it.

So Kakashi goes to his last resort:

The administration building.

He goes in, and doesn't even get to look through the relatively cool files, like the ones about new bingo books and murder records and this fall's Who's Who of nuke-nin that the hokage is gonna make you go out and murder.

He has to go to the civilian census records, and he didn't even know where those were. He has to ask one of the desk nin to show him, and then get that same nin to leave him alone while he's looking through the records.

He refuses to swallow his pride and go ask for help when he can't find anything related to the Haruno name.

In the end, it takes him nearly three hours- three hours that should have been twenty minutes at most.

What Kakashi ends up finding is a tiny little file on the Haruno clan.

The Haruno clan was a textiles clan, trading mostly in silks and kimonos and civilian clothing. Sure, there wouldn't be much about them- they're harmless, civilian clan with civilian interests and civilian contracts. There's an old family register in there, and there at the end is Haruno Sakura, with her parents Mebuki and Kizashi, and according to the manifest of trading schedules, Mebuki and Kizashi do spend an awful lot of time outside of Konoha.

But Kakashi flips through the slim folder, increasingly upset and honestly about to throw something, and at the very end, he finds something that he's not entirely sure if he was looking for.

A death certificate.

Well, a few death certificates. The bulk of the folder was apparently made up of the death certificates- there's at least twenty there, maybe thirty, and they're all dated October 10th.

October 10th, twelve years ago.

It's convenient, that's for sure. A lot of people died in the kyuubi attack, and somehow over half the Haruno clan in Konoha died along with them. Almost entirely adults- only about three certificates have the 'child' character stamped in the corner, but none have the telltale salty stains from an untrained chuunin filling out the forms.

Haruno Sakura is the youngest death, by a lot. By about thirteen years, if Kakashi's math is right.

Those are pretty interesting odds.

So, on the one day that Kakashi isn't busy teaching Sasuke, he goes looking for Sakura.

He doesn't find her, which doesn't surprise him.

But he does manage to spot the hokage, while he's in his office, and from the hokage's office he can just about see Danzo.

But according to the hokage, and the few files that Danzo is willing to keep in the hokage's office, neither of them have either heard of Haruno Sakura. The hokage knows of the Haruno family, claims that the hokage coats have been made by them ever since Hashirama, and calls it a shame that they'll have to start importing Haruno fabrics from Suna, with the exodus after all the best weavers died in the kyuubi attack.

According to everything official, Haruno Sakura has been dead since before she could even stand up and toddle around.

And yet, on the day of the actual chuunin fights, there she is, standing in the stands with Naruto.

And even when the genjutsu hits, nothing happens to Sakura. Barely even a kai, and it seems to come after she's already gone through it, like it's an afterthought to make her cover seem more realistic. Half-real.

And then, the retrieval mission, and no one notices her again, according to Shikamaru. Shikamaru also barely notices her, but he also works harder at seeing her than Inoichi ever had. And even with how hard he works, everyone can tell that it rankles that he still can barely notice her.

But Sasuke is missing, and they have no time to be thinking about the little civilian girl who annoys a Nara, because what little civilian girl doesn't annoy a Nara.

It's the funeral, too, that gets Kakashi. Because at the funeral, Sakura is standing across from the rest of the crowds, on the other side of the hokage's coffin, where only the ANBU on guard are supposed to be, and she's just smiling. Still wearing her usual clothing, no mourning blacks, just her red qipao, and smiling, like she's in on a joke.

No one notices. Not even Konohamaru, not even a Nara, not even Naruto.

Sakura is also standing right next to Kakashi, is the thing.

And then Naruto leaves to go and train with Jiraiya, team 7 is officially dissolved, and Kakashi stops seeing Sakura. He tries to forget Sakura, tries to erase every part of his mind that's itching for more answers, tries to destroy every part of him that wants to know why some supposedly dead girl was on the team of genin he was supposed to be training.

A year and a half since Naruto's been gone, the new hokage calls Kakashi into her office.

He shows up two hours late and nearly gets his head punched off for his troubles.

Once the godaime hokage's managed to calm down a bit, she asks him if he's ever noticed anything unusual about Haruno Sakura.

And sure, he has, he tells her. Who hasn't? The girls got chakra pools smaller than a one-ryo coin, with control in at least the ninetieth percentile. Her forehead's larger than usual, if that's what the godaime's asking about.

It isn't, of course, and Kakashi nearly gets a book-shaped bruise in the sternum.

After she chucks the book and Kakashi, she leans back in her chair and her gaze goes vague. She dismisses Kakashi halfheartedly, like he's not there anymore.

Kakashi lingers, though, instead of deciding just to vanish.

Offhandedly, he mentions the civilian records in the administration building, particularly the civilian death records.

And the name Haruno Sakura, which shows up in those records.

And then Kakashi vanishes.

And that night, Kakashi wakes up to find Haruno Sakura standing in his apartment.

She wishes that he hadn't told the godaime about her records.

He still wants to know if she's a ROOT agent.

Sakura smirks, the smirk that she had used when she had known something that Sasuke and Naruto didn't, Not the sweet little smile she had always used with him, when he explained things to her

Sakura leaves his apartment, and Kakashi has to follow.

She leads him all the way to a graveyard. The village is full of fog, the fog that Sakura usually manages to lose Kakashi in, but it seems to part for the two of them. They seem to be the only two awake- Kakashi can't even sense any ANBU signatures watching them from the rooftops.

In the graveyard, Sakura guides him to a family plot. On the left is a stone marked with Haruno Kizashi, on the right is Haruno Mebuki, and in the middle is a tiny commemoration to Haruno Sakura.

Kakashi didn't know that it was an actual grave. Most of those Danzo kids don't have actual graves, just records and certificates.

This is a grave, with two parents graves, surrounded by other Haruno graves.

A real grave. Not some stupid fake death certificate. A real stone grave, surrounded by other real stone graves.

And Sakura is still smirking, but her eyes have gone tired and sad.

Kakashi tells her that he hadn't known.

Sakura says that he's lying. That she knows he looked up her history in the administration building.

He asks why she's still here.

She says that, at first, it was because she couldn't forgive the kyuubi. She only got to really be alive for a few months, and that's not fair. It's not fair, right?

And she tried to be cruel to the kyuubi, but it wasn't the kyuubi, not actually, it was Naruto. Naruto who was nice.

And then, she had decided that she wouldn't be leaving until she knew that Naruto was safe, and happy, and recognized.

Kakashi told her that she was a good friend.

Sakura smirked, and her eyes brightened, and she said that she wasn't a good enough friend, not if she couldn't keep Sasuke from leaving.

And then Sakura vanished, and the fog overtook the world around Kakashi, and he lost sight of the three graves.

A year and a half later, Naruto comes back and Sakura reappears.


End file.
